A computer network is a collection of links and nodes (e.g., multiple computers and/or other devices connected together) arranged so that information may be passed from one part of the computer network to another over multiple links and through various nodes. Examples of computer networks include the Internet, the public switched telephone network, the global Telex network, computer networks (e.g., an intranet, an extranet, a local-area network, or a wide-area network), wired networks, and wireless networks.
The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networks arranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information between clients and website resources stored on hosting servers. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have access to computers connected to the Internet via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Content providers place website resources, such as, as non-limiting examples, multimedia information (e.g., text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and other forms of data) at specific locations on the Internet which may be operated from hosting servers. The combination of all the websites, website resources and their corresponding web pages on the Internet are generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply the Web.
For clients and businesses alike, the Internet continues to be increasingly valuable. More people use the Web for everyday tasks, from social networking, shopping, banking, and paying bills to consuming media and entertainment. E-commerce is growing, with businesses delivering more services and content across the Internet, communicating and collaborating online, and inventing new ways to connect with each other. Clients may use, as non-limiting examples, a cell phone, PDA, tablet, laptop computer, or desktop computer to access websites or servers, such as hosting servers, via a computer network, such as the Internet.
Prevalent on the Web are multimedia websites, some of which may offer and sell goods and services to individuals and organizations. Websites may consist of a single webpage, but typically consist of multiple interconnected and related webpages. Websites, unless very large and complex or have unusual traffic demands, typically reside on a single hosting server and are prepared and maintained by a single individual or entity (although websites residing on multiple hosting servers are certainly possible). Menus, links, tabs, etc. may be used by clients 100 to move between different web pages within the website or to move to a different website, possibly on the same or a different hosting server.
Websites may be created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to generate a standard set of tags that define how the webpages for the website are to be displayed. Clients 100 on the Internet may access content providers' websites using software known as an Internet browser, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, GOOGLE CHROME or MOZILLA FIREFOX. After the browser has located the desired webpage, the browser requests and receives information from the webpage, typically in the form of an HTML document, and then displays the webpage content for the client. The client then may view other webpages at the same website or move to an entirely different website using the browser.
Some website operators, typically those that are larger and more sophisticated, may provide their own hardware, software, and connections to the Internet. But many website operators either do not have the resources available or do not want to create and maintain the infrastructure necessary to host their own websites. To assist such individuals (or entities), hosting companies exist that offer website hosting services. These hosting providers typically provide the hardware, software, and electronic communication means necessary to connect multiple websites to the Internet. A single hosting provider may literally host thousands of websites on one or more hosting servers.
The server or hosting server comprise hardware servers and may be, as non-limiting examples, one or more Dell PowerEdge(s) rack server(s), HP Blade Servers, IBM Rack or Tower servers, although other types of servers and combinations of one or more servers may be used. Various software packages and applications may run on the servers as desired. These software packages may include virtual machine emulators. A virtual machine is a simulation of a partial or complete computer architecture, implemented using software on, for example, the server or hosting server. The virtual machine can simulate the native architecture of the hosting server on which it is running, or the architecture of another type of server. Multiple virtual machines can be concurrently operated on a server, and so virtual machines are often used to virtually partition the physical resources of the server.
The hosting server can host websites in several different frameworks that affect the availability of the hosting server's resources to each website. In what is commonly known as “shared hosting,” the websites on a particular hosting server share access to physical resources such as CPU time, memory, storage space, and bandwidth. In Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, the hosting server uses virtual machines to create a VPS for each website/account. Each VPS is allotted particular resources and does not have to share those resources with other VPSs, but some resources such as bandwidth and CPU time are still shared between VPSs. Dedicated hosting commits the entire hosting server and its resources to one particular website/account. A hosting server can have combined shared and VPS hosting, and multiple hosting servers can work together in a server cluster to provide resources to shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting schemes according to the needs of the websites and accounts being hosted. One such distributed framework is known as “cloud hosting,” in which several clustered servers pool their physical resources in a virtual environment and provide scalable amounts of those resources to websites hosted in the virtual environment.
Browsers are able to locate specific websites because each website, resource, and computer on the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Presently, there are two standards for IP addresses. The older IP address standard, often called IP Version 4 (IPv4), is a 32-bit binary number, which is typically shown in dotted decimal notation, where four 8-bit bytes are separated by a dot from each other (e.g., 64.202.167.32). The notation is used to improve human readability. The newer IP address standard, often called IP Version 6 (IPv6) or Next Generation Internet Protocol (IPng), is a 128-bit binary number. The standard human readable notation for IPv6 addresses presents the address as eight 16-bit hexadecimal words, each separated by a colon (e.g., 2EDC:BA98:0332:0000:CF8A:000C:2154:7313).
IP addresses, however, even in human readable notation, are difficult for people to remember and use. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is much easier to remember and may be used to point to any computer, directory, or file on the Internet. A browser is able to access a website on the Internet through the use of a URL. The URL may include a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request combined with the website's Internet address, also known as the website's domain name. An example of a URL with a HTTP request and domain name is: http://www.companyname.com. In this example, the “http” identifies the URL as a HTTP request and the “companyname.com” is the domain name.
Domain names are much easier to remember and use than their corresponding IP addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approves some Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) and delegates the responsibility to a particular organization (a “registry”) for maintaining an authoritative source for the registered domain names within a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and their corresponding IP addresses. For certain TLDs (e.g., .biz, .info, .name and .org) the Registry is also the authoritative source for contact information related to the domain name and is referred to as a “thick” Registry. For other TLDs (e.g., .com and .net) only the domain name, registrar identification, and name server information is stored within the Registry, and a Registrar is the authoritative source for the contact information related to the domain name. Such Registries are referred to as “thin” registries. Most gTLDs are organized through a central domain name Shared Registration System (SRS) based on their TLD. TLDs may also be referred to as domain name extensions.
The process for registering a domain name with .com, .net, .org, and some other TLD allows a website operator to use an ICANN-accredited Registrar to register their domain name. For example, if a website operator, John Doe, wishes to register the domain name “mycompany.com,” John Doe may initially determine whether the desired domain name is available by contacting a domain name registrar. The website operator may make this contact using the Registrar's webpage and typing the desired domain name into a field on the registrar's webpage created for this purpose. Upon receiving the request from the website operator, the Registrar may ascertain whether “mycompany.com” has already been registered by checking the SRS database associated with the TLD of the domain name and/or by checking with the Registry. The results of the search then may be displayed on the webpage to thereby notify the website operator of the availability of the domain name. If the domain name is available, the website operator may proceed with the registration process. If the domain name is not available for registration, the website operator may keep selecting alternative domain names until an available domain name is found.